Silent Scream (Detective Kim Stone, #1) (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller)

by Angela Marsons

DISCOVER THE MILLION COPY PHENOMENON - the world's bestselling new crime author:

Even the darkest secrets can't stay buried forever...

Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood . . .

Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.

But when human remains are discovered at a former children's home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she's on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.

As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it's too late?

Fans of Rachel Abbott, Val McDermid and Mark Billingham will be gripped by this exceptional new voice in British crime fiction.

• ISBN10: 1909490911
• ISBN13: 9781909490918
• Publish Date: 20 February 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bookouture
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 390
• Language: English

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

Wow! Just wow! This was the first book I have read by Ms Marsons and the first one I have done as a buddy read and wow on both fronts. It was so much fun splitting the book by staves and then everyone rushing onto our Goodreads and Facebook chat to discuss the instalment we had just read! I feel for the group though as I brain dump as I go along!

This book just blew me away, and I think it is safe to say, everyone in our group! One of the first things we all agreed on is that this book felt more like an established book series rather than the first in the series. I felt like I knew the team intimately already, they gelled so well and I felt I was part of the family.

Kim Stone, this woman is a legend and I openly admit #girlcrush over here! This woman had more balls than any man I know! A leather wearing, motor biker, ball crusher! With the little teasers into her past, you can see why she is this way and I can not wait to learn more about her and her heartbreaking past. Her banter with Bryant is hilarious the only one she will allow to be close to her. Bates, god how these two wound each other, gives me hope that he will be back again, the chemistry with these two just makes me smile. Stone does not preamble, she is blunt and can be seen as rude and this definitely riles a lot of people. Me, it left me smiling.

Bryant, her partner, is the sun in her darkness, and the banter flowed so easily and broke up the story nicely as this story is dark, grim and intense the entire way through.

I loved all the theories we were throwing around in the group, we had theories about the twins, which we were oh so close to guessing. The shock we all experienced with the story and we all picked up on the same threads.

The shocks are so very real, the descriptions and the story is horrifying and I felt my hand was covering my mouth so many times in this book. Having lived near Birmingham in my uni days I recognised a few places in the book, one being Brindley Place, so for me, it made it so much easier to relate to the book and experience the harrowing events.

Ms Marsons knows how to suck the reader in, she knows what buttons to press to get Kim riled up and in turn the reader. She makes you feel the anguish of the team, the fear of the girls, the determination of Kim.

I think it is safe to say I LOVED and ADORED this book and I am chomping at the bit to get onto the next book already! I am willing to drop all commitments just to do so! In fact, we are all so excited to read the next book in the series as part of our buddy reads and I have a feeling that the schedule may just be changed again by Kate!

[Leah]

When I heard BookOuture were releasing their first crime novel – the first in a series no less, I was chuffed. I want to read more crime novels during 2015 because it’s a genre I really enjoy, but don’t always have the time to read. I rank Tess Gerritsen as my favourite crime author. Her Rizzoli & Isles series is one of the best set of crime books you could ever hope to read. Thank me later for the recommendation. So when I saw Silent Scream, Angela Marsons’ debut crime novel, I thought it sounded amazing and I was quite excited to get stuck in and see how this one fared. I have never been so impressed by a debut novel in a long time, and I’m actually now itching for more from D.I. Kim Stone and the rest of her squad.

Silent Scream is actually quite similar to Gerritsen’s first Rizzoli & Isles book The Surgeon. We hear from the killer, which is always fun as you try and determine just who that person is and the lead character D.I. Kim Stone is like the British Jane Rizzoli. She’s so ballsy and doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no. I LOVE heroines who just do what they want and sod the consequences and Kim did that, right from the beginning as people keep turning up dead, people who are all connected to a children’s home that burned down. Me and Kim Stone would make really good friends, I think. Her honesty was refreshing and she’s the kind of detective who doesn’t rest until the killer is brought to justice and I have huge respect for that. It helped that she had more of an affinity with the girls in the children’s home, having suffered through that herself when she was a kid and come out the other side stronger.

There’s quite a lot of strands to Silent Scream. Lots of balls up in the air and as you inch further and further in to the story you can see it all coming nicely together. I actually didn’t peg the killer. I didn’t see it coming at all, in fact. But I was gripped to Silent Scream from start to finish. It’s been a while since I’ve been so involved in reading and now I’ve been lucky enough to read two novels that I could barely put down. The first being City Love by Susane Colasanti, if you want to check it out. I can actually hardly believe this is Angela’s debut novel and I hope it’s the first of many, many D.I. Kim Stone novels. The plot was so well executed and the final twist at the end with the twins Beth and Nicola left me with my mouth hanging open like a fish. Other authors have tried to pull that off before, and it doesn’t usually work, but this was done so well and there wasn’t even a hint to it, so massive kudos to Angela for pulling it off.

One of the things I probably loved most was how much respect Kim garners. Yes, she can be a bit abrupt and snarky (especially with dishy Doc Daniel – I sense romaaaaaaaaance), but her team respect her and she’s rewarded with loyalty and dedicated from her team. Particularly her partner Bryant. I loved him, especially after the whole puppy thing. Men who do what he does with those puppies are the BEST and if he weren’t already married I’d totes be shipping Kim and Bryant, but I quite like Daniel so I’m happy to leave them as buddies. I even loved the Black Country setting and all the accents that come along with it (although I wasn’t a fan of the “marm”, as Kim wasn’t, either). If you were ever wondering how to write a gripping, wholly engaging crime novel, just have a read of Silent Scream and marvel at how Angela Marsons has done it. I can’t wait for the second book, because this one was a top-notch crime thriller.